On December 6, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly announced that the US would fight against discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities through public diplomacy. In an address at the United Nations in Geneva, Clinton stated, “Gay rights are human rights,” and added, “it should never be a crime to be gay.” According to a memo released by the White House, US government agencies will now factor in gay rights when allocating funding for foreign aid and asylum decisions, BBC News reported. Clinton’s speech in Geneva was also attended by diplomats from countries where homosexuality is a criminal offense.

Official memorandum from the White House on this issue does not specify consequences for countries that fail to respect gay rights. This new major foreign policy objective now poses significant challenges for the US, as many countries that the US has relationships with outlaw homosexuality as a criminal offense.

The US is not the only country to have considered gay rights in their foreign policy objectives. Previously in October 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron similarly warned that the United Kingdom would cut aid to countries that did not respect gay rights.